Prestressed hollowcore units are now the most widely used type of precast flooring in Western Europe. This success is largely due to the highly efficient design and production methods, flexibility in use, surface finish and structural efficiency. However, some concern has been recently raised about the actual performance of hollowcore floors in fire, following some limited calamities in a few real fires. Also a few cases of premature shear failure in small scale standard fire tests were reported in the past. Henceforth, the question could be raised if this constitutes a real structural problem for this type of floor, or whether the reason lies in a lack of understanding of the behaviour of hollowcore slabs during heavy fire, resulting in poor design, also for small-scale laboratory test set-ups.
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